Getting Away With Murder
by FluffleNeCharka
Summary: When someone at X dies, the prime suspect has her own guess about who did it. But even as they follow her lead to the murderer, something's not quite right. Will anyone get the blame for this one, or will star students go free? A Grim Adventure x-over.
1. Act I, Last Call for Interregations

Good lord, this was taking a lot of time.

"Let's try this again," Anza sighed, rubbing his head with no longer feigned frustration. "You and Billy were seen eating lunch together. Apparently you went to all your classes, but he vanished one class after lunch. Then you and Irwin weren't seen at school for the rest of the day after that. Billy's body was found at five PM in the Pottery Club's industrial oven." He looked at her with emotionless, expressionless eyes, a trick he'd developed to help with interegations. "You feel like talking about how it got there? We've only got an hour and a half before the police are taking you in."

"I have no idea how it got there. I haven't seen Billy since lunch." Her tone was flat, and her dark green, nearly black eyes met his unflinchingly. "And you're welcome to turn me over to the police, Officer."

Anza looked at her with something akin to deeply buried hatred, but said nothing. Officers knew how to keep their mouths shut in times like these. Exiting the closed room, he turned to Folsom and, with a heavy sigh, shook his head. It was seven thirty, and at the end of his shift he'd still yet to crack the girl. She was at home, she said, when she'd left school. Her parents had vouched for her, as had her friend, Irwin. She had actually managed to pass a lie detector test. Her prints were nowhere to be found at the scene. Her record was spotless. She could even lie while making eye contact, something that (according to Ingrid) only one percent of the population was capable of.

"We have got to get her talking," Vallejo said, looking at her file with disdain. "If we can't, we'll have to give the police a Declaration of Innocence."

Ingrid blinked, looking up from where she'd been reading through all of Endsville Middle School's newspapers. "A what?"

"It means we'll have to tell the police we don't think she did it even after through investigation," he explained. "If we give her a DI, they'll close the investigation into her within the hour."

"Well, _one_ of you better get her to crack!" Folsom snapped, looking livid. "I will _not_ let murder go unpunished at my school. Keep her here as long as you have to, just get her to talk!" Storming out, Vallejo couldn't help but notice that she hadn't threatened to disband the Safety Patrol. This was getting to her so badly she couldn't even shout because she was so furious at Mandy.

"Fillmore," Vallejo said, and that was all he had to. His eyes were tired and his face was downtrodden. "Please-"

"No problem," he replied, smiling in what he hoped was a confident manner, "I got this."

"Don't you want to look at her file?" Ingrid asked, confused.

"Nah." He said softly, expression turning dark. "Sometimes the best conversations are ones where you don't know each other."

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Mandy was quiet, unnervingly so. She sat rimrod straight in her chair, arms resting uneasily on the table, looking straight ahead with very well feigned innocence. Everything about her, from the way her feet rested on the floor to her immaculate appearance, was deisgned to throw off guilt. A guilty kid hunched down and made noise, shifted, glared, crossed and uncrossed their legs, and looked like crap. She was the polar opposite of all that the handbook for the SP said she would be. It was no accident, Fillmore knew as he sat down across from her. It was a very purposefully done mask. Too bad for her Fillmore was an expert at cracking that kind of mask.

"So, you're Mandy. Officer Fillmore. Nice to meet you," he said, not taking his eyes off her for a second. "Let's get down to business. You killed Billy."

Her eyes widened slightly. "Isn't it against school policy to accuse me directly?"

"Mandy, school policy doesn't apply to recordings we turn in to the cops," he returned evenly. "So, you killed him. Not very subtle, putting him in an oven. First time?"

A normal kid would have been indignant, scared, horrified, or at least object. Instead, her face remained calm and collected. "I didn't kill him."

"Was he in the way of something, Mandy? And don't tell me," Fillmore said, grinning, holding up a hand to stop her from speaking, "That you've got a clean slate. A pure white record is worse than one that's all black when something big goes down. Was he a liability? Was he gonna squeal on you, let us know about something you'd rather have hidden?"

"You didn't read Billy's profile, did you?" she replied, raising an eyebrow at him. "He was-"

"Mentally retarded, I know. Badly. His grades were on the level of a first grader," Fillmore said, struggling to keep his voice level, "But he wasn't as stupid as you think. He was a good kid, a nice one. He told on kids even after he'd promised to be quiet. He knew right from wrong, even if he couldn't understand two times two. I don't claim that Billy _understood_ what you were doing. I get that the boy was dense. I just think he understood it was wrong."

This stunned the platinum blonde girl into silence. Her heart shaped face was impassive as she forced her hands to unclench and sat up even straighter. Fillmore could see why Irwin was head over heels in love with her. She was beautiful, with her almond shaped eyes and delicate features. Too bad that her mind was so twisted and ugly. Even as she fought down the urge to move and give herself away, Fillmore could tell he'd made the first crack in her perfect little mask. He met her eyes with a cool, collected smile. An hour and twenty minutes left on the clock before she could escape him.

All the time in the world.


	2. Act II, Sociopathic Memories

He always acted like he'd never see her again.

"Mandy!" the redhead had squeeked, arms wrapping around her, not noticing her recoil. "Hiiiiii!"

The blonde sighed, detangling herself from her friend. "Billy, please. You're making a scene."

He blinked at her. "What's for lunch?"

Looking at the wide array of lunch foods available at X, Mandy took two trays, and grabbed various things for Billy. Nothing with sugar. The boy was hyper enough as it was. Handing him his tray, she sighed visibly as he began shoveling it into his mouth with one hand, standing in the middle of the line stupidly. She'd known him for what seemed to be a nightmarishly long time, and yet he never seemed to get any smarter as time went on. Back when they were little kids, she'd just thought he was silly or a little dim witted. By middle school, however, she had lost all patience for him.

"Sit at a table, moron," she told him, and he sat down obediently, not understanding the angry expression on Mandy's face.

"What's wrong, Mandy?" he asked, looking up from licking his hand with confused brown-black eyes. "You want some of my mashed potatos?"

"No, Billy." She replied, never quite meeting his eyes. "I'm fine."

A few hours, she told herself, eyes focused on her juice. In a few hours, she would be completely free of this. She wouldn't have to babysit him anymore. The world wouldn't see Mandy, friend of the moron, they'd see Mandy, unappreciated genius. Chugging her apple juice, eyes closed, she decided she was doing him a favor. Billy would end up in a home or something anyway. He couldn't even find his classes without her help. Glancing over at him, she found he was building a square out of his food. Was there a doubt her mind? Was there a voice telling her that this was wrong, that her plans could go on without hurting him? Was there a part of her that recognized him as an old friend, someone who meant a lot to her?

No. There was no room for such things in her mind. Without any guilt, she grabbed his cup and added something to it under the table, handing it to him with the firm instruction to drink it. He downed it without hesitation.

"Irwin." Mandy snapped, causing the other boy to jump. "Today you're going to skip a few periods of school, alright?"

"Mandy?" he asked, confused.

"Just trust me," she told him softly. With that, she grabbed Billy by the hand, cringing slightly at the contact, and the two left the lunch room together. When she returned a moment later, Billy was nowehere in sight.

The next time he saw her, she knew, would be his last.

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"I've noticed something," Fillmore said, staring her down. "No matter what your file says, people are telling me things less than stellar about you."

Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Oh, really? Like who?"

"A better question be who _hasn't_," he corrected her. "Everybody I meet is terrified of you. Everyone says you're cold. You're cruel. You don't care when people get hurt or when things go wrong, and you don't think of anybody but yourself. You aren't sorry when you make mistakes and you mock others for being less than perfect."

"So?"

"A lack of remorse as characterized by having no shame or concept of right and wrong. Constant lying, and an inability to tell the truth shown in your ability to pass a lie detector test. Shallow emotions, with abnormal reactions to serious consequences. And the real zinger, a total lack of empathy. Mandy, you're a sociopath." Fillmore smirked at her. "And with all the interviews we have here, we can land you in therapy until your 20's."

"What?" Mandy snarled, eyes narrowing to slits. "You can't do that, there's nothing wrong with-"

"Furthermore," he went on, as if she hadn't said anything, "You're authoritarian, you think you're fine, you go way our of your way to look normal, and you've said you want to rule the world. It wouldn't take much for me to get the school therapist to write up a diagnosis and reccommend you to a center. After that, your lawyer will make you plead insanity. I see some serious time in a lockdown facility in your future, sweet cheeks."

Mandy met his gaze with a kind of intensity that would have petrified a lesser man. "What do you want?"

"Truth. You can either tell me how it went down and why, or I'll have you locked up. This isn't some game, Mandy. This is murder, and you aren't gonna be walking the streets after this unless we know what happened. You can tell me and go to the police honestly, or I'll throw you away for life. 'Cause let me tell you something, girl, they don't let you out after a set amount of days in mental hospitals. They'll keep you there forever if they have to. Now, I'm gonna come back here in ten minutes with my partner, and you'll have made your choice." Fillmore stood, never once looking remotely unsure of himself. "Think about it."

The second he was clear of the room, Vallejo pulled him aside, eyes wide. "What the hell was that?"

"That was me wheelin' and dealin'," the Safety Patroller chortled. "And I'd say we got her where we want her."

"I know that, what I meant was where the heck did you learn all the stuff?"

Ingrid shared a smile with her partner. "I taught him. Figured it'd come in handy one of these days." She turned to Fillmore, expression serious. "Do you really think she'll crack?"

"Yeah, I do," he said, looking in at Mandy where she sat, looking far away. "I really do."

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"Mandy, I don't feel so good..." Billy muttered, holding his stomach. "It feels like a weasel's inside."

He was so stupid. She smirked benignly down at him. "It'll be fine. You just ate too much at lunch, stupid." For good measure, she added, "You better not throw up on me."

Irwin was shaking. Visibly, physically shaking. His part wasn't done yet. In the quiet, Mandy could hear the pottery furnace's dull roar. With a look, she signaled to him to go while she stood by Billy, huddled in an oft forgotten tool shack. Irwin gulped, steadied his voice, and off he went to tell them to keep it on for the Egyptian Club so that they could make vases later. They bought it, just like she knew they would. Of course, they had no reason not to believe him. Lots of black kids were part of the Egyptian Club. He could be just another face in the EC they didn't recognize. They were trusting, the Pottery Club. They wouldn't check for paperwork or clearance for such a little request.

Billy was really in pain now, curled up into a ball. His red hair was matted with sweat, and his eyes looked small in his head. She stood over him, impassive and expressionless, just like she'd always been ever since they were little. It was nice to have her with him, he thought. He liked having Mandy around. She could talk to people when they spoke too fast for him to understand. She knew everything. He smiled up at her, tongue lolling out stupidly. She didn't return the smile. Mandy never did and never would. That was okay, though. That was just her.

"Mandy?" he asked, as she pulled him to his feet, "What're you doing?"

"We're going to go somewhere warmer," she told him, and he believed her.

"Will there be pizza there?"

And the glare she gave him was too familiar to be unsettling, and his mind was too simple to be frightened by it.


	3. Act III, The Depth of Obsession

Smug confidence was something Fillmore had mastered.

Actually, he'd gotten it from Anza. In his days before the Patrol, Joseph Anza had been the kind of guy who had contacts and the total ability to hide that fact. His smug, painted smirk was perfectly condescending and arrogant, which was when his quick wit caught them off guard. Once he'd been admitted to the Safety Patrol after a long talk with Wayne and Vallejo, he'd become a flawless interregator for his deadpan, expressionless, utterly serious tone. It was funny, really, seeing as his real self was nothing like those personas. He was actually fairly upbeat and funny, at the end of the day.

But somehow Anza had never thought to apply that first facade to the Patrol. And normally, neither would Fillmore. Mandy was a special case, however. She'd endured three and a half hours of talk without ever flinching from 'I didn't do it'. She held herself rigidly, talking down officers and correcting them on what happened. If there was an alibi, and she was lying, she knew it so well and perfectly that she could fool a lie detector test. For someone that smart, that kind of mind blowingly strong willed smart, the only way to counter her was to catch her off guard. He had to outwit her and corner her and ultimately break her down until she explained what happened. Words wouldn't do that. Silent time in a cold room, all alone with murder charges staring her down would.

When he returned with Ingrid, Mandy met his eyes honestly.

"I didn't do it, Fillmore," she said softly. "But I think I know who did."

Ingrid raised an eyebrow. "Then why didn't you tell us earlier?"

"She's..." Mandy paused, looking far away for a moment. "Untouchable. The perfect student, with straight A's and club memberships and a spot on the cheerleading squad.  
A great family with great jobs in a good neighborhood. You know the type. No one would ever believe me over someone like her. Honestly, you may as well turn me into the police right now with a Declaration of Guilt."

"Mandy, we can't do that, and I won't," Fillmore replied, expression darkening. "If you didn't do it then it's our job to prove someone else did. We'll get her and we'll bring her in. I promise."

"Just tell us what happened," Ingrid said softly. "Under Endsville city law, they can't put you in a mental health hospital or charge you with murder if they haven't investigated at least two other people for the same charges. If you tell us who she is, you'll be safe." Noticing the way the two stared at her, she shrugged. "Photographic memory. I've been doing a lot of reading lately."

Mandy smiled, faintly. "Well, get ready to use it again."

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"It all started when I was five years old.

She had just moved into my neighborhood. She was short, and alone, and just stood in her driveway holding a stuffed animal for a while. So I asked her how she was. And she told me, and told me, and told me. She wouldn't stop talking to me. Pretty soon I realized I wasn't going to get away in time for dinner if I didn't shut her up. I told her to shut up and I walked off. It had been an hour. I was tired. And after that I decided to steer clear of the weird girl who wouldn't shut up. But she wasn't okay with that. She wanted to be my friend really badly, for some reason.

She begged the teacher to sit near me. She copied my clothes. She read all the same books I did, or tried to anyway. She wasn't that bright. She ran around watching me at recess. And then when she saw Billy was my best friend, she just sort of lost it. She screamed and cried and tore up his coloring book. She threw fits. She tried to fight with him. She called him names. She called me names, too, until finally she curled into a ball and cried herself to sleep. Ever since that day, she's been different. Not quite right in the head. She made friends with my friends and got them to hate me. They follow her around like dogs. She tried to make Billy hate me, but he was a moron. He didn't understand about cool kids and girly power struggles. All he knew how to do was hang out with me, so he did that.

It got worse through elementary school. She ran for class president and signed up for twenty clubs. She was in beauty pageants and dance competetions, a suck up to every last teacher, and she made sure I knew just how many people she had all around her. She built up a network of friends all over the country. She set up websites all about herself. She even went so far as to petetion to get a street named after her. Everything was all about how much she had. I didn't care. I don't give a flip how much fame some elementary age school girl has online. It's worthless. She hated me for saying that. Really, deep down hated me. Because all she's ever wanted is me.

She's always invited me to things, begged me to come to her birthday parties, made sure I knew when I wasn't invited. She put on airs and took on titles to impress me. Every language she learned, every dance routine mastered was all about getting me to speak to her, to notice what she was doing. She wanted me to be her friend, to idolize her the way she used to idolize me. But it all fell flat in the end. I never cared. I look at her and see obsession and insanity, nothing else.

Billy and Irwin are my best friends. They've been with me for longer than anyone else. They always go with me wherever I go, and we've never let her play with us once in our entire lives. Irwin is too smart to be her friend. He knows how she uses people and leaves them behind. He knows why I avoid her. Billy is another story. Billy trusts everyone to be good and play nice. He lacks... lacked, that voice in your head that tells you someone might hurt you or something might be bad. Irwin could see when she was using him. Billy couldn't. He just wasn't smart enough. He attached himself to me like a leech when we were two, because he needed someone to be smart for him. He was also the reason why Irwin met me and liked me. Without Billy, I have nothing, Fillmore. Without him I'm just plain Mandy.

And without him, Mindy finally has her first clear shot at me since I was five."

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Invesitgating Mindy wasn't hard.

Her name was everywhere in Ingrid's mind. She was part of every last club at her middle school. She was the star of everything, the girl who wouldn't ever take no for an answer. But her popularity did nothing to hide the fact that Mandy was smarter than her. Mandy was the brightest person in school. Mandy was the one voted most likely to succeed. Mindy was a distant second, try as she might to do every last little thing she could. She was desperate for attention, starving for the spotlight. By Ingrid's calculations, Mindy was a member of 109 clubs in the span of the past four years, having won 233 awards and 12 medals for her service to the school. Yet there was no end in sight. She was out of control, drunk with power.

"She has terrible behavior, Fillmore. And not like Mandy's," Ingrid told him, holding out the girl's file to him. "She _likes_ seeing people cry. She likes making people happy and taking it all away and leaving them with nothing. She's incredibly possessive, of her trophies and awards and her friends. She even hit one kid for saying to hi to someone before her."

"If all she ever wanted was to get Mandy to be her friend, and the only thing in the way was Billy..."

"...She'd have all the resources to pull it off. She didn't mean for the blame to fall on Mandy, Fillmore. She wanted it to blame _Irwin_! With him out of the way Mandy would be friendless for the first time in her life, so Mindy could swoop in and be a shoulder to cry on." Ingrid's eyes grew wide. "But Mandy figured it out."

"She's smarter than Mindy thinks she is," the African American boy said, rubbing his eyes under his glasses. "I can't believe I almost threw Mandy into a lockdown facility."

Officer Third smiled, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. "It worked, though. Now all we have to do is go get Mindy."

"Where-"

"Little Miss Love Poetry Competetion, north audiotorium," Ingrid said, reading his mind and handing him a set of keys. "Come on, Folsom's letting us take her golf cart."

"Dawg. She must be pretty upset to let anybody but her drive that thing."

She glanced over at him. "Not too confident in your driving skills, huh?"

He smirked at her. "You kiddin' me? I'll make this ride smooth as a Mercedes."

Was it her, Ingrid wondered, or was there a bit of smugness in his voice that indicated this ride was going to be more like a Hummer?


	4. Act IV, A Grim Conspiracy

AN: This chapter brought to you by Wikipedia reading. Once I found out Mandy was the only blonde girl in her school (with one other background character named Keero being the other blond; he has all of two lines in the show) this all clicked together wonderfully. Anyway, I'm writing this before I go see Twilight (which I don't like, but my niece who's almost my age does) so if there's any errors, I'm sorry. I was in a rush and I'll correct any problems as soon as I can.

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"Book burning isn't a serious crime, Irwin."

Mandy smirked at her cowering friend, having deposited the last of their books into the oven. The flames were roaring as Billy stood, hunched over in the corner, eyes watering. He grinned stupidly at her, still not understanding quite what his part in this was. Which was good, because if he had any idea that she was deliberately putting Endsville Middle School into debt by ruining the most ancient of their books, he'd probably stop her or fly into a confused rage. Of course, Irwin understood what she was doing. The school system would have to divert funds from the mega fund holder that was X into Endsville, supplying them with books from this century. And no one would accuse her because she was a registered student of X Middle School now.

Irwin, on the other hand, was still registered at Endsville, and knew very well he could be expelled. "Maybe we should get out of here, yo. It's getting late- Mandy, what are you-?"

Billy was looking particularly ill, and in a few swift movements Mandy had him puking into the oven.

"The acid from vomit will keep the paper burning until its ashes aren't even recognizable." She explained coldly. "Uh, Billy, you can stop now."

"Okay!" he chirped, swaying on his feet. "Wow, I feel lots better now!"

Sighing, Mandy smiled benignly at him and shook her head. Despite the thoughts that raced through her mind sometimes, when her blood sugar and serotin levels were regulated - something she was attempting, however failingly, to do by herself - she was rather fond of him. Ruffling his red hair briefly, she cleared the room of any signs they'd been there. Although the Pottery Club would get reprimanded for leaving the oven on, there wasn't going to be any truly bad consequences here. Maybe a detention for the PCC leader or a brief speech from Folsom, but there was no indicator to anyone other than Billy, Mandy and Irwin that anything had happened here. Mandy even took the time to clear their finger prints off of every last surface, an act that she had been sure would have calmed Irwin's nerves. Yet he still seemed on edge.

Billy snapped her out of her thoughts by nearly falling over. "I'm hungry now."

"Yeah, you would be," she muttered. "Irwin, the Sandwich Club has a stand down by the west campus exit. You and Billy go grab something to eat." She handed him some money, running her other hand through her hair. "I'm going to go home."

"O-okay," Irwin replied, hastily taking Billy's hand. "Let's go, yo."

And as Mandy headed out into the silent winter night, she couldn't help but feel something was off. As she thought about it, in fact, she would later realize Irwin had gone the wrong way, deeper into the eastern campus. Later Irwin would be found with Mandy's money still in his pocket, and the Sandwich Club would report never seeing the two boys there. Her serotin levels were low, and her preception was skewed, so the genius blonde was unable to realize what was happening as she staggered home. Blood sugar low, she would make to her house before demanding cookies from her mother. Seven chocolate chip cookies and thirty minutes later, Joseph Anza would appear to charge her with the very murder she'd backed out of, and the schizo-affected girl would say nothing for the first hour of her interrogation, memories veiled in a fog. It would take her hours to recall what had happened, hours in which Mindy and Irwin were out there going free. Smarter people would have skipped town. Too bad Mindy wasn't smart, and never thought the blame would fall on her. Mandy sighed, burying her face in her hands.

Book burning isn't a serious crime.

But it had very serious consequences.

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Having been released from the custody of the Safety Patrol long enough to go to the bathroom, Mandy stood in a crowded stall, using her cell phone.

Her parents had been wonderfully, amazingly on her side. She was never close to them, in that they were weak willed and soft spoken and gentle while she was commanding and sharp spoken, but she was their daughter and they'd really come to bat for her. Proof, alibi, witnesses - they were the only reason she wasn't in police custody right away. She called them up, and told them that Mindy was now the prime suspect. Her mother let out a shriek that echoed in the bathroom, and the phone went dead. Mandy didn't have to be a genius to know her mother was probably calling up all her relatives at this point, being the over dramatic soul that she was. Hitting another button on speed dial, the platinum blonde glanced at the clock and sighed as her stomach rumbled.

"Hey, Grim?"

"Mandy!" And she pulled back her head as the Jamaican accented voice rang out. "Where have you been? Do you have any idea what it's like to find about Billy on the news and not know where you are? I swear, child, you're driving me to an early retirement!"

"I was in interrogation, Grim. I couldn't call anyone at all until just now. Anyway, I need you to do me a favor," she took a deep breath, her tone lowering down to a whisper. "I need you to tell me about Mindy. She wasn't in school today, and I think she's behind this."

"She's been gone all day," he told her, glancing at their mutual neighbor's house as he spoke. "She and Nergal Junior and some blond boy got up at three in the mornin' and took off. Haven't seen them all day."

Mandy's eyes narrowed. "A blond boy? Grim, I'm the only blonde in the school besides Keero."

"It wasn't him, child. He was a lot taller than that, and had blue eyes instead o' brown." Grim frowned. "I think he's from X or something. Now, about you not calling me-"

Mandy had ended the call, and quicker than lightning she was in Safety Patrol Headquarters, digging through papers in Ingrid's desk. Tehama and Anza shared startled looks, but before they could ask anything, the Endsville girl was dialing Ingrid's number and praying she'd pick up. This wasn't right. She should have known Mindy wouldn't be able to plan something out this well, wouldn't be able to convince Irwin to hurt his best friends like this. Nergal would be the one keeping them safe from blame, using his power and intellect to keep the whole thing free of evidence and concot a backstory, but why? Why would he ever agree to helping Mindy, someone he didn't know, hurt Billy, his own cousin? It all didn't add up. There was a missing link here, something she just didn't have the ability to piece together.

"Ingrid, it's Mandy."

"Mandy, we just got Mind y into custody. What-"

"Shut up and listen. A friend of mine who was at home today said he saw Mindy, Billy's cousin and a blond boy with blue eyes leave town early this morning. There's only one blond boy in Endsville, Ingrid, and he has _brown_ eyes and is about a foot shorter than everyone else. I don't know who he is, but he has to be from X, and he's masterminding this entire thing." Mandy cringed. "I don't know if that narrows down your pool of suspects or widens them, but somewhere out there, there's a genius who managed to pull all this together, someone whose reputation is spotless enough for Mindy to like him and charismatic enough to convince Irwin to murder someone. Someone with pre-med school knowledge, someone who knows how to get forensic evidence removed from a room - maybe someone who used to be a Safety Patroller..."

As Ingrid frowned thoughtfully, Fillmore froze in place, eyes gone wide beneath his glasses, and the two locked eyes as one thought came to both their minds.

"Parnassus."


	5. Act V, Revelations and Bloodlust

Fillmore had to marvel at his awful luck.

Within three seconds of cuffing Mindy, Mandy had called. Leaning in to listen, he had heard every last horrifying word. And mind you, he _was_ horrified. Parnassus was his own personal nightmare. Too good to touch through the system, he was running for class president this year. His popularity was at an all time high. The world was falling over itself to bow down to him, to love and admire him. He lapped it up, reveled in it. But though he appeared to be flawless, Fillmore had always sensed in him that capacity to be evil that so many criminals had. There was no line with him. No one was off limits for his plans. Parnassus had no mercy.

And now, as Fillmore raced off to find the boy and Ingrid took Mindy into custody, his walkie talkie buzzed. Mandy had escaped from the detention room. He groaned, and increased his pace. Ingrid and Mindy would arrive in a few minutes on the central campus, golf cart en tow, and he would be out here looking for two sociopaths in a snowstorm. He had a sinking feeling in his stomach as he approached the school's storage building. Not for Mandy. Oh, no, Parnassus had met his match in her. His sociopathic, cold blooded, dark hearted equal. Fillmore was most afraid for what Mandy would do to him once she got a hold of him. She had her cellphone and the school would give her easy access to computers. She would track the blond boy down in a heartbeat. She would find him, and she would corner him.

She would kill him.

Mandy was not merciful. She could be, with time, but it wasn't in her daily nature. Now, with every reason to seek revenge, she would be ruthless. Billy was her best friend. She had her moments of madness, in which Fillmore wouldn't be surprised if she'd considered hurting Billy. She'd never actually done it. She reigned herself in. Mandy was not a slave to her madness. She was the ruler of her own mind, through sheer force of will and planning. That kind of genius could be deadly if she wanted it to be.

Once she had heard them speak, she had realized they knew who to look for. Mandy had somehow gotten out of the holding room them, to try and track Parnassus down on her own. If this had been anyone else Fillmore would've thought it was impossible. This wasn't anyone else. This was Mandy, winner of awards, creator of plans, inventor, schemer, fighter. The well connected, dementedly good counterpart to Parnassus. The other side of the same coin. Quite frankly Fillmore didn't care if Tehama was annoyed at him for randomly calling her and asking for the other boy's location. Her paperwork could wait. This was serious. He had to stop her.

Unless, of course, she got to Parnassus first.

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Nergal Junior was an imposing figure at best, and a near demonic one at his worst.

Puberty had been kind to him, having given him the height he had lacked in childhood. Tall, thin, with long limbs and a sort of graceful gait that mirrored his father, he was referred to at X as being somewhat of a male version of Ingrid Third. His black hair was slicked back, pulled into a ponytail at the base of his neck, and he wore all black, which only seemed to emphasize his inhuman proportions. His eyes were a sickening green-yellow behind his glasses, but it hardly mattered. He possessed a kind of charm that made people equal parts uneasy and intrigued.

He was well aware that his reputation had carried over somewhat from Endsville. Trouble had a way of following him. To cross him was to suddenly find yourself failing every class, without lunch, and without a coat in below zero cold. To anger him was to vanish for a few days and come back mauled. Disasters could befall anyone who he wanted them to, and he would always, always, get away with it.

Unlike Mandy, who had long ago decided to control her mind, and Parnassus, who had turned his insanity into a weapon, Nergal knew that he wasn't quite right. With that knowledge in mind, he had decided to make himself untouchable, too well connected and powerful and evil for anyone to blame for anything. All the while, he made himself just enough of a polite, charming, gentle suck up for anyone to ever believe the rumors about him were true. What he was left with was something of a dichotomy of reputation and personality. He wasn't anything that could be pinned down, and this pleased him greatly.

He knew Mandy's first thought would be to go after his boss. Unfortunately for her, Nergal knew her far too well. Having spent the better part of his childhood being shunned and ostracized by her, he knew her mindset. She would take the most deserted route possible, because she had no allies, only enemies. She would run through empty hallways and duck out an abandoned classroom in the hopes of avoiding the Safety Patrol and teaching staff in one swift move. Clever. He would have done the same thing in her position.

There were only a few rooms on the first floor not in use, even on the far side of the building, even at night. He slipped in to one, shutting the door silently behind him, and moved into the near total darkness of the corner. Darkness was falling upon X in the winter. Only the faint blue light of street lamps reflecting on snow lit the silent classroom. In this moment there was no one in the world who could save Mandy once she was outside, because the outside was devoid of even a single lone figure.

The door opened, and Mandy entered, not even bothering to look around. She made a beeline for the window, dark emerald eyes glinting with anger. Before she could even touch the glass, a textbook connected with her head, sending her sprawling. The blonde's eyes widened as she stood just in time for Nergal to grab her hands and pin her arms behind her.

"Hello there, _friend_," he sneered into her ear as she struggled violently. He responded by simply lifting her off the ground, given that he was a foot taller than her. "How very nice to see you."

His giggle would have made any other girl scream. Mandy, however, was not any other girl. Glaring fit to kill, she turned to face him as best she could. "Let me go, Nergal. This doesn't have to involve you."

He chuckled coldly, eyes glowing in the dark. "You're in no position to be giving orders, Mandy. You're going to stay with me for a little while, and you'll do it willingly." His tone was soft and breathy, warm in her ear. She thought she detected a hint of longing in his voice, but he used that seductive tone so often she was immune to it now. What registered instead were his words.

"You're insane!" She snapped. "Why would I do that?"

"Why, my _dear_," he grinned, revealing fangs, "If you don't, the Safety Patrol will just end up blaming you. A possible suspect running off in the dead of night doesn't sound too good, now, does it?"

It struck Mandy then that she was two steps ahead of Parnassus. He had no idea Mindy was in custody right now, or that Mandy had a solid alibi. He still thought he had total control over this entire thing. He had orchestrated this, for whatever sick reason, but he hadn't thought that Mandy would crack. He didn't realize, or didn't want to realize, that his brilliant scheme could have holes in it. She was above him. She knew her own plans were screwy. That was why she had backup plans. Now that those had fallen through, she would have to do something Parnassus could never even dream of. She would have to call in Grim.

Slamming her head back into Nergal's, she heard him groan as he dropped her. In the split second it took for him to make that mistake, her foot made solid contact with his groin, and he crumpled to the floor. In an instinctive act of violence, she grabbed a textbook and went to work making him unconscious. He would probably make her life a living hell for this, but it was the only option. Speed dialing Grim, she opened the window and stepped out into the night, running at lightning speed. Enough was enough, she had decided. Now she was going to end this with force.

Nergal would never have revealed his true nature to Parnassus. Nergal's entire life revolved around deceiving and cheating other people. His rise to power was based solely on information and his skill at manipulating it. Parnassus thought he was dealing with ordinary kids. Whatever he was getting out of this, why he was doing this, she didn't know. What she did know was that with Mindy in custody, Nergal knocked out, and Grim on the way, she stood a real chance of having her vengeance tonight. Except now she wasn't gunning for Parnassus.

Now she was aiming for Irwin.

He had done this. He may have been tricked into it. It didn't matter to Mandy as she rushed to meet Grim. The simple fact was that her second best friend had murdered her best friend. He had done so for one simple, obvious reason: With Billy out of the way, his one sided love for her would be unchallenged and uninterrupted. It was so obvious Mandy cursed herself for not thinking of this earlier. Mindy, Nergal, Parnassus – they could be dealt with one on one, later. Right now what mattered was getting the real mastermind under Safety Patrol control before he escaped completely.

Mandy had never been totally clear on what her morals were, or what she stood for. Rule breaking for the sake of rule breaking was something she just did. Lying, cheating, manipulating, controlling. She was no hero. All her life she had tried to be a loner, set apart from everyone else. She had been unforgiving, cold, unloving. Billy had stayed with her anyway. Irwin had loved her anyway. They were the constants in her life. Constant annoying from Billy, admiration from Irwin. Except now everything was topsy turvy. Now Billy was gone and the one person she thought the most harmless was at the center of it all. Was it right to be out here in the middle of the falling snow, chasing him down when it was quite likely he'd get off without punishment? Was it right to invoke Grim's supernatural power against a bundle of preteen control freaks? Would any of this even work?

She wasn't sure.

But she was about to find out.


	6. The Final Act, Melting Ice

Irwin was used to Mandy.

He was used to her violent, evil, vicious, controlling ways. He was used to her lying to him, berating him, demeaning him, ignoring him and otherwise treating him like dirt. He was accustomed to her glares, the way her almond shaped eyes could narrow to a slit in a second flat. The raw anger she radiated could make his heart flutter at a distance. Her low, gravelly tone of voice when she was mad could make his breath stall if she only spoke a single word in that voice. Mandy's very presence was a comfortingly unsettling experience.

Except for right now.

Right now, with a gun aimed squarely at his chest, she looked like hell incarnate. Her eyes were not slits, merely empty, hollow half circles that pierced him as her emotionless gaze drifted from him to Parnassus and back. If she was aware of the other students all around her who were stopping and panicking, of the stares she was receiving, or of the shouts for the Safety Patrol, she did not show it. This was not the Mandy Irwin was used to. This was something entirely different, devoid of everything that made her herself.

The two boys dared not move, for fear she might shoot. They weren't stupid. They knew they couldn't outrun a bullet. Her reputation alone meant that there was no way she wouldn't shoot them. She was cold as ice when everything was going right for her. Having freshly suffered a loss, she was quite possibly the most lethal person on campus right now. Unaware of the cold and snow, she locked eyes with Irwin and placed her finger tight around the trigger.

"You." She said it with more hatred than any other word. "You killed him."

Irwin felt all the blood drain out of his face. She knew. It didn't matter how impossible it was for her to know. She just knew. She was Mandy, a genius, a thinker, a dreamer. She knew exactly what had happened. This was the part of his dream where she would come up to him, kiss him and thank him. Except that, as the frigid wind howled, he realized it wasn't a dream. Mandy was not thanking him. She was not smiling. More than she had ever been in her life, she was gripped with a cold rage that made her hate him so intensely he felt hot even in the snowfall.

"I- I did it for you!" he blurted out. "I just wanted you to love me!"

Mandy gazed at him coldly, expression blank. "Why would I love a murderer, Irwin?"

He fumbled for his words. "I just thought – he was such a retard – you were always so alone – without him, I mean… Mindy said it would work! She said that you would have her for a friend and we could've been together for once! You and me could have been together!"

"Oh, I doubt that," Fillmore's cool voice cut across the silence as he held up a tape recorder triumphantly. "Unless she comes to visit you in jail, that is." Turning to Mandy, he added softly, "You can put the gun down now. It's over."

Mandy made no such move to do so. "Grim called you, didn't he?"

"He was worried you were going to do something you'd regret. And you're about to, unless you put that down."

"Why should I?" she asked, her voice starting to crack even as her expression stayed hollow. "After what he did to me, why should I let him go?"

Mandy realized that her hands were shaking. Actually, all of her was, in a tidal wave of feelings she didn't know she had. She had almost killed Billy herself, but she had held back. She had almost sent Grim after them all. She was just as bad as all of these people she wanted in prison. She was just like they said she was. Cold, cruel, unloving, unfeeling, without remorse. She should just shoot Irwin and let herself be locked away where she couldn't do any harm. She should just shoot herself and forget this whole thing ever happened.

In her sleeveless hoodie, her bare arms were rosy pink. Her cheeks were flushed. Her hair and clothes were dripping wet, now partially frozen and stiff. The perfectly annoyed scowl she wore had slipped away into what could only be called a heartbroken look. For the first time in her entire life, there was no Billy to say something stupid and distract her. Even when it came to his own demise he had inadvertently talked her out of it. He could do that. One word or hug and he could shake her out of this pain, out of this emptiness. If Billy were here she would drop the gun and life would go on. If Billy were here she wouldn't be shaking. But Billy wasn't here.

And now, he never would be.

Mandy didn't realize she was crying, that big, hot tears were pouring down her face for the first time since she was two. She didn't even mean to speak. The words just tumbled out, the first heartfelt and honest thing she had said in her entire life to Irwin. Her voice was no longer the familiar vicious, cutting knife it had once been. Instead, it was quiet, raspy, pained, breaking, faltering – everything Mandy had never been before.

"So you think he was just a retard, huh? That he wasn't worth anything?" her eyes bore into his. Fillmore, the gun and the case were forgotten to her in that moment. "Billy _was_ retarded and he _did_ do stupid things. He was a moron and he could never understand anything that I talk about like you do. But," and here her voice cracked for an instant before she regained composure, "But he loved me, with all his heart. He never hurt me like you did. He wouldn't even think of it. He was too stupid and selfless. You're right, he was dumb. And I loved him for it! I needed it! I loved _him_!"

With that last word, she abruptly turned the gun towards her own head, and took several deep, shuddering breaths. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. This was not the stoic sociopath Fillmore had met in the interrogation room. This was not the manipulating witch Irwin knew. This was a broken girl, one who was too damaged to care about appearances and airs anymore. The old Mandy would never even consider crying or speaking about her feelings at all, let alone do both in public. But the old Mandy had Billy. She was complete. Now she was nothing. Hanging her head, sobbing quietly, she slowly lowered the gun before letting it drop. Without any warning, she crumpled to the ground, crying into her hands.

By the time the Safety Patrollers had taken Irwin and Parnassus into custody, Mandy had ceased crying. She had resumed a blank, dull, listless expression. She did not respond when spoken to, and had to be helped to her feet. In truth her revelation had stunned even her. All she could think was that it was all too little too late as they forced her inside and wrapped a blanket around her. Sopping wet, she sat staring at the floor for what seemed to be a nightmarish eternity. The world seemed so empty now. There was no one to tell her lame jokes or giggle for no reason at here. There was no overbearing hug from her best friend. There was nothing at all.

The whole of the information was presented to the police. They would look over it and made their decision later. For now Mandy was expected to go home. She couldn't move. Her legs felt like lead weights. Was this what it was like, feeling things? If so she now realized why she had worked so hard to shut everything off. She had built up her walls to keep this from happening. But while she had kept everyone at bay intellectually, Billy had wormed his way into her heart and, with his death, shattered what was left of it. She felt that she should berate someone, make her usual snide remarks, do _something_, but she found herself powerless to do so.

Fillmore sat down beside her, placing a heavy hand on her shoulder. Weakly, she met his eyes, and he smiled, speaking the two words she needed to hear the most.

"It's over."

And with that, she found the strength to get up and leave, what was left of her logical mind interpreting that statement as an order. Stumbling to the car, where she sat motionless as they drove home, Mandy couldn't help but feel something was changing within her. For the better or worse, she didn't know. With so much deceit and so many lies hanging all around her, and her own deepest secret now out in the open, she was unable to think. Everything seemed to blend together into a big mess she could no longer make sense of as she laid her head down on the seat, thoughts a tornado in her ears.

By the time they reached the house, she was fast asleep, and for the first time in years her father carried her up to her room, where she laid as if dead.

Which was fitting, since deep inside, she was.

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Fillmore was filing paperwork when Mandy stepped into the office.

She looked as if she was caught somewhere in between her old self and her crying, numb personality. Her hair was a mess, her appearance otherwise pristine, but her eyes were uncertain and half narrowed. Her arms were wrapped in bandages to help heal the partial frostbite she had obtained the night of Billy's death, and she had dark rings under her eyes. Fillmore rose to greet her, only to be startled when she took his hand, led him out into the hall, shut the door, and turned to him.

"I want to be a Safety Patroller." She said firmly.

Fillmore's jaw dropped. "You? But why? We already got Irwin and Mindy sent to juvie hall. I figured you would be back to your old life in Endsville by now."

She shook her head. In the month since Billy's death, she had become more white than blonde, and somehow it made her look more powerful than she had when she had been pristine. For a moment Fillmore wondered if she would wheedle her way onto the force with the same cold determination she had first had when interrogated. Then, when she met his eyes, he realized that that part of her was dead and long gone. What he saw when he looked at her was someone unrecognizable.

"I was just like them. I was evil. I've always _been_ evil. I don't know why, and I don't know if I can change. But Fillmore, Parnassus is still out there. He's still helping people commit horrible crimes and getting paid for it by scum like Mindy." She looked away for a long moment. "I considered getting back at him in ways no one could ever trace to me. I could kill him if I thought it would solve anything. It wouldn't, though. It would just make me as low as he is. I don't know if I can ever rise above his level, Officer. I just want to have a chance to try. A chance to try to bring him down, and a chance to be the person Billy always wanted me to be."

She held out a hand to him. "Do we have a deal? I'll need an Officer's recommendation to get on the Force."

Fillmore chortled, and drew the surprised girl in for a quick hug. "Girl, as far as I'm concerned you have my recommendation, my badge and my sash if you need them."

The old Mandy would have slugged him, snapped at him, or yelled at him. The old Mandy would not be pleased. But the old Mandy would not be here asking for this job at all. This was the new Mandy, who wanted to become someone completely unlike that cruel, cold, unfeeling girl he'd met a month ago. The only part of her that was the same was her willpower. If anyone could force themselves to change, it would be her. Even so, for a moment, Mandy felt a flicker of her old self threaten to emerge. The sinister urge to react violently, which she suspected would never leave her, nagged at her mind. She countered it by smiling back at Fillmore, the way Billy would've wanted to. The way Billy used to beg her to.

And although she couldn't go back in time and smile for him, somehow she felt this was just as good.

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Author's Note: Aaaand that's it, folks. My mom talked me out of my original idea for the ending – which just would've been Mandy shooting herself. (I still think that would've been a bit more of a Mandy-ish thing to do, but hey, Mandy's heel face turn is character development, and that's always good.) Let me know what you thought. Advice, compliments and critiques are always welcome.


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